The Miami Herald lite editorial board and executives don’t know what to do with the story that benzene contamination exists in the Biscayne aquifer at the well field that serves 2.3 million residents of Miami-Dade County.
Benzene is a volatile organic compound and dissipates from water when it is exposed to air. Since the air strippers at the Hialeah Treatment Plant bring the benzene limits with tolerance of federal regulations, the party line is there is no problem.
But what happens if the air strippers malfunction? Or are they fail-safe, working without a hitch like everything in Miami Dade county government.
We could ask Natacha Seijas, the de facto chair of the county commission who did the bidding of rock miners when she pushed through an ordinance voiding public hearings as part of the process for rock miners to get new permits to expand their activities.
We could also ask Herald executives, but we suppose they are too busy with holiday parties, rubbing shoulders with the rich and powerful, downtown lawyers who represent the production home builders who support Seijas--like the Graham Companies which tagged along with Hialeah's application to move the Urban Development Boundary and like Lennar.
The Herald wouldn't dare rock that boat.
The reason benzene is in the Biscayne aquifer is that it is a byproduct of the explosions rock mining companies detonate to fracture limestone in their process of creating lifeless rock pits in West Dade.
The rock mining industry is supported by every lobby from highway construction to real estate developers. But cancer trumps every known lobbyist.
The founding family of Lennar, for instance, pledged $100 million to medical research. The Leonard Miller School of Medicine at UM honors the founder who died of liver cancer at 69.
Benzene can cause cancer.
2 comments:
Something to ponder:
A very brief excerpt from Paul Schwiep's brilliant closing argument in the Federal Lake Belt/Rock Mining case recently heard by Judge Hoeveler (see my post Dec. 3rd):
"There's a fundamental disagreement between the
parties and how they approach the issues that this case presents. Plaintiffs' ( Environmental groups, Sierra Club, NRDC and NPCA) participation in this case is really driven by three principles:
We didn't create this earth,
we don't own it, and
we have no right to wreck it."
"The Intervenors' (Rock Miners) position fundamentally boils down to a sense of entitlement.
They own the property,
they have business expectations, and
those must be met."
Schwiep went on to say:
"...We just see the world through very different
prisms. Stewardship versus ownership."
When are these guys going to own to the fact that their activities can cause cancer for the rest of us?
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